Home Adviser Lt Gen (retd) Jahangir Alam Chowdhury called for a press briefing at 3:00am today. Unprecedented as it was, the alert sent shockwaves through the newsrooms.

But when the home adviser began the briefing at his DOHS Baridhara home, it turned out to be nothing more than routine.

He said the government was aware of the law-and-order situation. Cohorts of the Awami League regime are trying to destabilise the country, the adviser said. "But we will not let it happen. All forces will resist it."

"I instructed law enforcement agencies to beef up their patrolling so that no such incidents happen from tomorrow [today] onwards. If the law enforcement agencies do not execute my order, we will take action against the officers concerned.

"Law and order situation will not further deteriorate, rather it will improve," he said.

Was this really something that warranted a press briefing at three o'clock?

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Growing unease in the city amid crime spree

This press briefing came following calls for his resignation from a number of demonstrations yesterday. Women were on the streets under a banner that said '17 rapes in 24 hours'. Eden College students took to the streets, saying they did not feel safe on the roads.

The same evening, a mosque at Shankar in Dhaka announced in the evening that a gang wielding sharp weapons was roaming the streets. At least two video clips went viral. One showed muggers hacking and shooting a man and snatching a bag full of cash and gold. While mugging has become unremarkable around Dhaka's residential neighbourhoods, thefts and highway robberies are fast becoming commonplace. Fed up, Dhaka University campus erupted in protests. Students demanded that the home adviser resigns.

It was in this context that the home adviser called his briefing only to accuse Awami League cohorts of the crimes, which was reminiscent of how the previous regime would blame Jamaat-e-Islami for anything that went wrong in this country.

He said law and order had improved from before and would improve even further. And with that reassurance, the home boss went back to his house.

Adviser Jahangir Alam appears to have gone out his way to remain elusive to the press. He seldom takes questions, let alone sit for interviews, where he might be held accountable. He has hardly shown any initiative since he took office and even yesterday, it dawned on him to call for a press conference in the middle of the night only to say that there was nothing to fear.

That the home adviser is incapable of grasping the seriousness of the matter could not be more evident than what he had to say to the press earlier today.